Customer Review

Jason Statham (Expendables) stars as the mysterious Luke Wright, a man with a dark past & on the edge of suicide. But a chance meeting with a young Chinese girl, Mei (Catherine Chan) gives him something to fight for. She is a maths genius & combination mule for the Chinese triads, who have her as their personal accountant for their New York business dealings, but she also carrys a code to something much, much bigger. As she becomes bounced between the Chinese triads, Russian mafia & corrupt NYPD, it's upto to Luke Wright to keep her safe & redeem himself for his past life.

I'm always wary of going into one of Mr Statham's films, as they are either average, albeit watchable fare, or something above average and really quite good. In my opinion, Safe falls into the latter category this time around. The story at the begining is quite fast moving for setting the films premise, with loads of subtitles, as we are thrown from present day time, back a few months to a few years, you really need to keep track of it to understand what the film is going to be all about. After that initial 20 minutes or so, the film arrives back to present day New York, as we follow Mr Wright's & Miss Mei's paths, as they overplap.

The story is quite formulaic albeit interesting enough with double dealings & double crosses, but, with a Statham film you know what your coming for, the action. And in that respect the film is a winner. After the initial introduction & setting of the scenario, the action is fast paced & jumping from car chases, subway train rooftops, gambling den's to swanky hotels. With a combination of guns, fist fights & some novel use's of the enviroment that Jackie Chan would be proud of. The body count is hard to keep up with, but that's ok, as it's the bad guys who are getting a merciless drubbing. So it's somewhat of a let down that the finale is bit of a damp squib.

The acting is pretty good overall, Statham talking through his action & young newcomer Catherine Chan impressing, while some well known & not so well known faces in the mix. Robert John Burke (Robocop 3) & Chris Sarandon (Fright Night) lead the corrupt officials, Sándor Técsy & Joseph Sikora as the Russian head men , while the undoubted standouts of James Hong (Big Trouble In Little China)& Reggie Lee (Grimm) were the cream of the baddie crop as the Chinese triads.

In conclusion, the story is decent albeit it tails off quite a bit towards the end. But the action is great & some of the camera work is used to good effect in places. Entertaining stuff, but dont expect anything more. Reccomened.

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